Swing Shift
by jenni3penny
Summary: "I apologize." / "For breaking into my place or drinking my whiskey?"
1. Chapter 1

"_Swing shift?" _

She blinked surprise into the abrupt but refreshingly direct text message as she plied her hair down and out over her shoulders, answering an affirmative with a quick thumbing over the screen of her phone, pausing only long enough to check again to be sure it was the Scot. She refused the urge to scroll back through the scattered other texts he'd sent her – mostly club-business and meet up related. Except for a couple that she had absolutely no doubt he'd been drunkenly giddy while writing. Especially the one that referred to her as some sort of 'minx'.

"_In kitchen. Don't shoot. Would be an unfortunate incident."_

Ally frowned and shook her head, not answering as she tossed her phone into her bag and swung it up onto her shoulder, already heading for the door. She stopped at dispatch long enough to sign off on a few reports and have a chat with the dispatcher coming on duty. The other woman made her smile with a quick jab at one of the mouthier male officers and Ally just waved it off as she headed for the exit.

Delightful. That had been it. Delightful minx.

And what the hell was he doing in her kitchen?

* * *

><p>The humored teasing and feigned anger she meant to sling in his direction faded into the shadowed doorway when she realized he was standing back against the counter as though he hadn't been able to find a place to comfortably sit, his body arched back but livewire tightened and taut. There was a firming to his jaw that read vitriolic and the only thing that managed to break it was the swing of the juice glass he'd filled with the whiskey he'd appropriated from her cabinet.<p>

"I apologize." He offered as a sort of toast before hissing down a swallow from the glass, his voice obviously gritted with an emotion she didn't know him well enough to pin down.

But her guess was that it was verging somewhere between desperation and fury.

"For breaking into my place or drinking my whiskey?" she questioned with a purposefully softened tone, lacing it up with a smile that was meant to soothe.

"Ya showed me where you hide the key, Ally." A reflection of a smile almost tweaked his lips but it was lost as he set the glass aside, hips angling back harder against the counter as his hands rode the edge of it. "The whiskey couldn't be helped."

Ally shrugged as she dumped her bag to the kitchen island, stepping slowly around it so that she could tip the whiskey bottle. "So at least you didn't start drinking until you got here?"

"That is true." He agreed softly, head nearing hers as he angled his chin toward his shoulder, breathing in the smell of her hair.

"Keys." She lifted her hand between them, turning into the way his frame was curling around her as her knuckles brushed leather.

"No." his face had hardened back into seriousness as he curled his fingers onto hers with a tentative touch. "I mean it. If I need to go… I'm fine to ride."

"Then they get hung up." She tipped her head toward the front of the house as she loosened their fingers apart, avoiding the unhidden anger that had managed to flush his normally paler skin. "Lock the door while you're at it, Scotty."

"Ah." his fingers caught at her shirt and tugged her tightly into him before she could move away from him. "What makes you think I'm stayin'? Maybe I just needed to talk."

"You're staying." She murmured the words so softly that he perked his head at an angle to hear them, eyes fluttering shut when she brushed her lips past his to tenderly travel one scar, "You don't want to talk."

"No." he turned his glance to hers, his eyes looking suddenly fiercely dark. "I don't."

"You want something else." Her shoulder perked up into the veracity of the assumption.

"Aye." He nodded his mouth closer and she could damn near taste the whiskey on his breath. "I do."

She shrugged him off with an intentionally gentled palm into the center of worn in and softened leather, "Then go lock the door."

* * *

><p>He was gutted and gone as he watched her, following the movements she made as she cleared the clip from her weapon and dropped it into the drawer beside the bed. Her finger was unconsciously guiding along the safety as she set the Glock into the drawer carefully and quietly, barely a sound from the movement as the other hand tugged the badge clip from her belt. He followed the arch of her body as she tucked that away as well, both hands sliding the drawer shut before she pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and turned it off. It was left to the table and he was caught studying her as she turned, a knowingly cocked smile on her lips.<p>

"What?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He murmured in a tone that rendered an unspoken apology.

"Well," she shrugged as both her hands raked her hair back off her face and tugged it still and away from the lean lines of her jaw, "good. Because I didn't ask."

"I like that." He nodded, the heel of his boot digging unconsciously into the plush carpet of her bedroom.

"You all right over there, Scotty?" her tone had traded into teasing and he sighed as she just smirked playfully at him. "You've been in here before, ya know?"

"I know." The quick jerk of his accent made the response tighter and sharper than he'd meant it and he finally laxed into a smile for her, "I remember."

"For this thing to work you kinda have to take a few steps closer to the bed." Her taunting was driving the smirk deeper into his cheeks and he rolled breath of laughter to the side before shaking his head at her. "Unless you're second thinking this."

"No." he angled his jaw down slowly but kept his eyes to hers. "I'm not."

"Okay." She nodded slowly and turned, easing to sit on the edge of the mattress. "So… maybe you need to talk about it."

"I don't." his whisper just barely preceded the brush of his boots against the carpet and she watched the intentional slowness of his movements, holding oxygen tight into her lungs when his hand led into her hair.

Ally let her eyes close into the way he wiped her hair back, the rippled sound of his cut as he shifted into a crouch was louder than she expected but she unconsciously smiled into it. His fingers trailed her throat and she caught against them tightly, turning his hand over so that she could press her lips into his wrist lightly, light enough to make him inhale sharply as he watched her. His balance swayed a little and she felt him catch himself by leaning into her knees, head tilted enough to watch the warmth of her movements as his other arm laid across her lap.

There was a knowing gentleness to the way she touched him that unnerved him.

There wasn't any guile in it. She wasn't trying to impress him or playing coquette like younger and more eager girls. She was sure in her movements.

She seemed sure of him.

And that was bloody terrifying.

"Do y'trust me?" he asked as she caught his fingers up into her hand, her thumb rolling against the inside of one of his rings.

He watched the flinch of honesty thin her eyes as she matched his questioning glance, a barely perceptible shake to her head, "Not completely."

"Trust this?" he asked before he tugged her fingers against his lips and kissed against her knuckles.

"I think so."

The only response he gave her was a flared grin and a swift nod before lifting his head into hers, forcing a hard kiss into her lips that had both her hands clasping up onto his jaw. The sudden ragged force of his movement didn't scare her so much as plow heat through her chest as he used his hands against the mattress to lift himself up over her, a palm curling into her hair and clasping against the back of her neck. She let him force her back into an awkward but dizzying arch as he swiped his tongue against her teeth, the taste of whiskey and cigarettes a reminder of the frustration he'd been venting in her kitchen.

"Filip." Her fingers were already raking down the cut, prying it open so that her fingers trapped and tagged still on his shoulder holster, "Keep your boots off my bed."

He groaned a smile into her hair as she easily unhooked the double holster, her fingers working fast and knowing the movements in the way that not many another woman would. He complied slowly, toeing off the boots as she leaned back on her hands, watching him kick them aside playfully as she teased socked toes against the outside of his ankle. Chibs sighed as she stared at him expectantly, her shoulders swaying comfortably back as she leaned her elbows into the mattress and made a shrugging movement.

"Comfortable, are ya?" he questioned cockily as he slung the cut off and laid it onto the mattress at her side.

"Quite." The amused nod she made had him smiling reflexively and a groan followed as she angled her upper body to the side, stroking her fingers down the length of leather before spreading the back patch flat.

He went a little rigid as she palmed against it but the gentling of her hand as she smoothed it out and flat flared a heat in his stomach that made his lungs snap still.

"Still comfy?" he asked quietly, letting the holster slide back off his shoulders so that he could gently land it to the carpeted floor, watching as she nodded in self assured humor.

"Then I apologize again, love." He leaned down over her, catching her lips up lightly with his as he curled his hands down her ribs, sloping her hips, and gripping into the denim at her thighs.

The look of sudden confusion on her face tumbled into surprised laughter as he jerked her hard and down closer to the edge of the mattress, dragging her legs up around his hips as he leaned his weight over hers. His elbows settled into the comforter after wiping quick fingers back up the length of her, his mouth finding hers again as he matched the laughter that tripped her lips. The heat of her tongue against his matched the flush on his skin that

"Comfortable?" she whispered softly into the way he was laying his kisses along her cheek.

"Almost." His hand had trapped hers and tugged it between them and he traced against her wrist as she broke from his control and knowingly caught against his belt buckle.

There was a softness in the mingled colors of her eyes and it jarred him for a moment, made him watch the confident upturn of her jaw as she undid his belt and worked against the button of his jeans. Filip angled his head, letting his eyes run the length of her splayed hair and then back over her eyes and nose and the damp press of her lips. The run of her tongue against her bottom lip just before her teeth nipped down on it had his chest ratcheting tightly.

"Filip?" her fingers stalled against his stomach, rubbing up under his shirt to press warm skin.

"Althea?" he questioned softly with a dazed smile.

"Your phone." Her other hand brushed along his pocket and he caught against her hand, pressing it still as he felt the vibration and groaned a solid wreck of frustration down into her collarbone.

"Ye've gotta be fucking kidding me." He rubbed his forehead into her shirt and exhaled hard as he pulled the phone out, checking who was calling. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah." She let her legs slide from his hips, pressing up onto her elbows once again as he turned away enough to answer with a gruff and obviously racked tone, his breathing more rattled than she'd realized.

Ally crossed one leg idly over the other, studying the cocked angle of his hips and the way his jeans were slagging low against them. She sighed before leaning onto her side, studying the cut that was laying beside her, her finger slowly tracing the outline of the reaper. She didn't have much faith or fear in omens or talismans. But he did.

"You're a popular man, Scotty." She blithely offered into the apologetic and sheepish look he turned back to her after agreeing to something and quickly hanging up.

"There's too much goin' down." His voice had caged quiet in a more lethal manner, his ire and anger dusted up once again as he pocketed his phone, hand sliding against his belt buckle. "Too many lines crossin' each other at rush hour."

"You didn't want to talk about it." She sighed out softly as she pressed herself up from the mattress, stretching her back as she wiped a hand through her hair.

"I can't, Ally." he corrected, voice cutting ragged. "There's a difference."

She rolled a noise of supposed agreement through her pressed lips and reach for his leather, taking it up in both hands and when she turned he'd gotten much closer than she'd expected. She lifted the leather in her hands and couldn't help but soften as he turned into the way she was holding it, letting her slide it up his arms against his shoulders as he exhaled hard, his frame suddenly seeming weary.

"Hey." She leaned into his back, pressing into the large patch as he tugged the leather tighter against his chest, angling her head onto his shoulder so that her lips were jutting against the back of his ear.

"Aye?"

"Be safe." She whispered the words once again and he couldn't save himself from smiling into it this time, head turning into the way she was leaned up against the side of his head. "No more dead on my doorstep."

There was a sadness shading his skin pale as he turned and caught a kiss against her, breaking his forehead into hers as it ended. "Can we reschedule?"

The lift in her shoulders was light as she dipped her eyes closed, knowing he wasn't going to be close all that much longer. "Sure."

"I need my boots, Ally." He was smirking into the way she had him tugged tight.

"But they're happy there." She nodded toward where they were dumped beside her bed.

He smiled into charmed agreement, "They are, love. But I gotta go."

She exhaled as she loosened her fingers from leather. "Lock up behind you."

"Don't drink all my whiskey." He taunted as he tugged one of his boots on, watching the length of her as she laid back on the bed with a harsh exhale, her shirt riding high and flashing him a pass of skin that made him growl.

"I make no promises."


	2. Chapter 2

"Still awake, huh?"

"My phone rang. I answered." She murmured slowly, tucking the cell between her ear and her shoulder, "I can hear the bike, Telford. You shouldn't be driving."

"Red light." He answered swiftly.

"Lie." She responded with just as much speed, typing easily on the laptop that was settled on her crossed legs. "I'm drinking the whiskey."

"Lie." He responded in kind. "You wouldn't do that to me, Althea."

She simply smiled as she cast a glance at the bottle she'd brought in and set to the bedside table but hadn't actually cracked yet. "On your way or not?"

"Am I?" The smile in his voice just barely broke over the sound of the bike kicking up louder in the background.

She rolled her eyes and sat back from the way she was hunched into the report she was typing, stretching her spine back, "Only if you hang up while you're driving."

Ally laughed into the sudden deadened tone of the line, the click echoing in her ear as she shook her head.

* * *

><p>"Christ, woman."<p>

There was a distinctive groaning in his voice that reverberated up from his lungs and she looked up in confusion at the bedraggled tone he was using, wiping her hair back off her face as she studied the way he was standing in her bedroom doorway. She'd heard the bike, heard him come in, known it was him by the specific trip of his boot heels against the entryway tile. He'd stopped in the kitchen and while she'd questioned why, she hadn't let it much distract her from her work. It wasn't until he'd paused in her doorway with a breathy exhalation of frustration that she'd finally broken her concentration for good.

"What?" her eyes travelled the double layer of leather over his chest and shoulders to the way he had two glasses hooked by gloved fingers at his side.

"Waiting in bed for me in a pretty little pair of panties," he waved the glasses between them, the glass clinks echoing into the bedroom as he smirked one brow higher than the other, "and you're working?"

"I told you." she shrugged as she caught the way he was letting an obviously lusted glance linger over her bare shoulders and down the fabric of her tank. "Blood money buys overtime."

"S'not blood money." He groused at her as he toed his boots off, shucking them closer to the end of the bed. "It's pussy money."

"Because that's better." She snarked tightly as she shut the lid of the laptop.

Chibs made a tsk against his cheek and shook his head as he set the glasses onto the mattress, shirking from layers of leather slowly while she shifted the computer back to the bedside table. He stalled a moment when she plucked the glasses up and set them aside as well, instead just lifting the bottle before she pushed up onto her knees and moved to the end of the bed, leaning forward to match the way he couldn't help but lean toward her movement.

"No need to be judgmental, love." There was a smile in his eyes as he pressed his forehead into hers, his chest settling on an intentionally slow exhalation. "Some of those girls don't have what you have."

"Self respect?" she cracked as she spun the top on the whiskey bottle.

"Ally." He hissed it at her patiently. "Faith in themselves. Confidence. Control."

She couldn't help but shake her head as she caught his eyes, pushing the bottle into his chest so that he was forced the take it, "You truly are a charmer, Telford. Is that bullshit natural or is it assigned to you along with the accent?"

A full grin and dimples shaded his scars as he shrugged and took a swallow off the bottle, licking the taste from his bottom lip as she smiled up at him, her fingers already working his belt open. "I've perfected it some."

"I don't doubt it." Ally murmured the response cockily, brow arched as she let his belt hang and leaned forward, letting him tip the bottle against her lips as she stroked her fingers down against warm denim. The groan he rattled over her as she took down a swallow of whiskeyed heat and rubbed the heel of her hand against his zipper took over the quietness in the room.

"Aw, hell." His still gloved hand lifted, thumb wiping along her bottom lip before he leaned in to take a taste of leftover whiskey from her tongue. "You're almost perfect."

"Almost?" she cocked at him, tugging the bottle back and leaning back on the bed, knees intentionally drawn up as she leaned back against the pillows. "Almost."

He made a saddened noise as he shrugged and undid the button on his jeans, fingers just as quick clad in leather as they were otherwise, "PD doesn't validate my parking."

"Maybe if you actually paid your speeding fines we'd consider it." She took another swallow from the bottle, eyes thinned from both weariness and to match the lusted way he was watching her as he leaned onto the bed and aimed up between her thighs. "I could arrest you right now. Nine in four years, Filip."

"I paid one of 'em."

"Because of parole." She argued and tugged the bottle back from the way he was leaning toward it, his arms pressing him up over her curled frame so that he was riding his hips into hers.

"Althea." He hushed any argument she may have had with gentle and repeated kisses against her lips. "You're my high road."

"Your - "

"Doesn't mean you have to look so pretty sittin' on that high fuckin' horse." He winked before letting his weight sink into her, his kiss distracting her enough that he could pry the bottle from her hand with a laugh that broke their lips apart.

"Bastard." She pouted and curled her legs against him, enjoying the way he was alternating between small and teasing sips and increasingly damp kisses down the curves of her breasts toward the neckline of her shirt.

There was a comforted groan sounding off his lungs and she shifted back enough to allow his movement as he shifted, rolling onto his back so that he could stretch bare shoulders into her chest. Ally leaned her head to the side as his arms relaxed against her bare thighs, another round of oxygen rattling in his lungs as he handed the bottle off to her and let his head drop back onto her collarbone, prying his gloves off slowly.

"You should be sleeping. Curled up safe and sound." He let them drop to the side and onto the mattress, his voice heated but lagging with weariness as he tugged her legs back around him.

"Still don't wanna talk about it." her lips wiped heat against his temple. "Do you?"

"No." He turned his head so that his face was aimed into her throat. "I don't."


	3. Chapter 3

He woke in a curled heat that smelled like mossy whiskey and warm sugar, a vanilla tweaked scent of leather and smoke. It jarred him to realize that the fact the haze of it finished off with oil and gunsmoke sulfur made it a comfortable circlet of the two of them combined. As surprising as the realization was, he leaned deeper into the smell, nuzzling his face farther down into her chest as he twisted harder onto his side and tugged at her, jerking her back farther under him than she had been. She'd let him fall asleep, wrapping him up between long legs and brushing kisses before shifting his weight off her and stretching at his side.

"If I wanted you over there," it was so barely there whispered that she wasn't sure she was hearing words at all. "I woulda put ya there."

"It's early." She groaned as she tucked her head down, annoyed that he hadn't even gotten his pants off before dipping into dreams that had tightened his body up and locked him away from her. "I don't have to be in til three, Filip. Leave me alone."

"Y'want me to go?" his tongue was sliding her throat, forcing her head up instead of curled under him.

"I want you to shut up." She groused and stretched on her back, intentionally arching her hips up into his as she finally caught his eyes in the barely backlit light that was starting to brighten her window.

"What else do you want, Lieutenant Sheriff?" the grit in his voice had nothing to do with the sing song swing of his accent and more to do with the sudden roughened darkness in his eyes as he sloped one hand up her stomach.

Ally relaxed her head back into the way one finger tugged down the collar of the tank top, his beard a rasping precursor to his tongue swiping the inside curve of one breast. She hadn't time to inhale before he sucked against skin, scraping with teeth and soothing with his tongue, marking her up as a primary possession. Owning the precarious and proverbial balance that they battled to keep between them. She arched into the movement as she drew her knees up at his hips, enjoying the fact that this time he was grasping at her instead of her hand reaching for something that could just disappear.

"You're overdressed." She softened against his ear as she drew his head back up, meeting the winced darkness in his eyes as he studied her face. "And I'm getting cold."

There was a sudden sympathy weakening his face and he dropped his mouth hard to hers, one of his hands aiming down to rub heat against the way her chilled thigh was tucked tightly up into him. Chibs sucked slowly against her tongue before breaking the kiss, pressing himself up so that he could use the other hand to shunt his pants off his hips. She didn't give him much time, though. Impatient little thing. He barely had them off his ass and she was already sitting up into the movement, her hands slapping his away and pressing down his boxers as he breathed a laugh through his nose.

"Althea." He liked saying her name slowly and softly. It never failed to sound a weak little noise in her throat.

"Don't do that." The thinning of her glare was betrayed by the tweak of a smile on her lips and he just grinned in return.

"She calls me 'Filip' whenever she fancies, Lord." He'd jokingly tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling as he crossed his fingers rapidly over his chest, "but I can't use her given name when she's tryin' to get me balls out and bare assed. Now, how am I to be a penitent man?"

Ally rolled an affirmative noise up her throat as she wiped fingers up the inside of one thigh, feeling him jerk under the touch as he grunted. "You probably should start praying now, Scotty."

His tongue was running his bottom lip as he looked back down over her, biting down on a groan as she closed her hand around his length, softly teasing touches down while her thumb rubbed the tip. The dark of his eyes flared a moment wider before his lids thinned them, a swallow working his throat hard as her palm curled heat around a nearly full erection.

"Because you're my Devil?" his voice rasped into the tease.

The smile on her was delicious and deceptive and damning at once. "Or salvation."

"Fucking Christ."

His voice slapped louder through the room than meant and the aching slope of his accent on the words made her laugh into the way he dropped her back onto the bed, his mouth rushing so hard that his teeth knocked hers before he drove his tongue against them. There was a sudden force and speed to his movements that warmed her skin and flushed her throat in the way she'd been working for and she knew when he scraped her underwear off her that he'd lost any patience he may have had. Driving fingers circled against her clit and spread into warmth as he leaned onto the other arm, sure to keep his other hand balanced enough to knot into her hair and stay there.

"Y'can't save me, sweetheart." There was a sudden sorrow to his whisper as he slid a finger inside her, his eyes twice as dark as she'd ever seen them as he watched her face shatter and her eyes dip closed. "You should stop tryin'."

"I can't." she squeezed her eyes shut into the veracity of the confession.

"I know." There was victory in his voice as his mouth lingered an inch from hers and her eyes snapped back open in sudden worry, the slight embarrassment fading when she found affection on his features. "And I'm sorry for it."

"Shut up, Filip." She hardened her jaw into the assertion, drawing a leg up around him tightly to try and pry him closer.

He nodded a sad sort of smile over her, taking rough kisses from her all over again as he pulled his fingers from inside her and sloped the tip of his length against her clit. He swallowed the sound of acceptance that breathed off from her lungs, pulling away from her kiss so that he could brush his cheek along hers as he worked his length through wetness, spreading dampness between them as her nails dug just below his ribs.

"I could save you, though. Find you a way out." She whispered into the scarred cheek and gentled her voice as he sharpened a look of confused and betrayed disdain over her suddenly. "If you were a different man."

"If I was a different man, you wouldn't have your legs around me," The gravel in his voice had heat spiking through her stomach as he teased the head of his length just barely into her and then out. "wantin' more of me."

She blinked acceptance as he fingered a strand of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. "I'm your high road."

"Aye." He slowly sank into her, hips jutting forward as they both met in a reaching arch of movement, her thighs sure around him as she drew him tighter inside her. "And I plan to keep ya there. Safe and sound."

"No road is safe in Charming." Both her hands had found his jaw and he watched her as he responded by jerking harder up into her, savoring the wince in her eyes as she breathed through her nose and drew her thighs higher on his hips.

"Your's will be when I'm done." He hushed over her, slowly shifting his hips in a slow rhythm into and out of her and back again as one of her hands reached to curl his wrist and hold there, nails biting into his skin. "If ya like. And they'll all know it."

"Filip." Her head arched back on a soft moan as he dropped his mouth along her throat, his fingers jerked hard into her hair as he sped his hips. "I don't need you to protect me."

"Ally," he sucked down on her skin again, kissing the mark he'd already made as she shivered and arched up under him. "ya do here. Now, hush."

She quieted as she curled up around him, tightening on his length as she arched her hips into his movement. She arched back as he stretched up on his arms to watch her, letting her stroke flat open palms up and down the stretch of tautened forearms. When he met her eyes something snapped liquid heat into his chest and he shuddered into the way it jacked his hips harder into her. He aimed his balance onto one hand while his other lifted to her face, fingers roving past her lips to stroke her pale throat and down the line of her sternum. He wiped at the mark he'd made, his hips unconsciously speeding up as his thrusts roughened. He bit down on a groan as she curled both hands around his forearm, holding his palm flat into the center line of her rib cage. One of her hands covered over his as she arched her head back, biting down on her bottom lip as she moaned into the rougher rhythm of him inside her.

"Fallen angels." He murmured raggedly as his hips shuddered and his thighs tightened up. "That's all devils are."

"Shut up." She gripped against his hand, shifting him harshly as she pressed up into the way he was arched and wiped against his chest with a whisper. "Stop talking nonsense and come, Telford. You're so close. You can't hold out on me forever."

He ignored the implication and smiled into the way her jaw fit into the angle of his shoulder, her mouth wet heat against the tight cord on the side of his neck. He sighed into the nip of her teeth on sweated skin as he palmed against her spine, otherwise stilling her as he let himself run ragged and rushed as she closed tighter on him. Her knees were driving higher toward his ribs and the shift in angle sank him deeper and it combined with her tongue tracing his ear, shattering the pent heat he'd been keeping a modicum of control over. He groaned his teeth down onto her shoulder, pressing them into taut muscle but locking his jaw against breaking skin as his lungs rattled, coming hard as his hand jerked her roughly closer to the drive of his hips. The sound he made reverberated down her collarbone and she closed tightly around him, her hands sliding up his back to keep him tight and locked inside her as he shivered again. His jaw loosened from her shoulder and she felt him wipe his cheek innocently against the redness on her skin, another groaning sound sighing off him.

"Maybe I don't want to save you, Filip." She was whispering into his hairline as she drew him slowly and carefully down over her, keeping him from pulling away. "Maybe I just like you right here. Alive. And safe."

"And maybe between your legs is the most dangerous place for me to be, Sheriff." He turned the intimation teasing with a pinch against her hip, stretching out as he pulled slowly from inside her, shifting carefully as she gripped into his shoulders to keep him from moving too far away.

"I'm fine with that possibility, actually." She murmured into the way he settled back over her, letting his lips press hers chastely, his eyes lidded tired as he sank his forehead into her collarbone and relaxed as much of his weight to the bed as possible.

"I tell you I don't wanna to talk about it." He groused into her throat, nuzzling up tighter into her. "And you get me talkin' with wiles."

"But not about anything that could actually get you into trouble." Her fingers circled along the back of his neck, softly stroking and lulling him still.

He snorted derision into her throat. "That's a matter of perspective."

"You don't need to protect me." She repeated softly, pressing against the back of his neck to keep him awake to hear the words.

"Aye," his voice had hazed toward sleepy. "And that's a matter of perspective too."


	4. Chapter 4

"It's a good thing I like looking at your ass, Scotty." She batted his fingers away from the way he was teasing the tip of a finger down her nose, grumping at him with a still sleep fuzzed voice. "You always seem to be walking away."

"But I always make sure you have a spectacular view." His face was close to hers, a smile guarding his scars as he let his chin rest into the leather clad arm he had laid onto the mattress. "Wanna call me later?"

"About what?" Confusion tensed up her face in a way that could only come off as adorable when her eyes were still muddled up with sleep.

"Because you like me, Sheriff." He tapped against the end of her nose. "And because I wanna know if you're headed into Stockton."

She rolled onto her back as she wiped a wash of dark hair off her face. "Please explain to me why I should have to call the deputy of the local hoodlums for permission to patrol my own quadrant?"

"Not permission, love." He nabbed his boots from the foot of her bed. "I meant so I could run interference. And I take offense at the deputy crack."

"Why would you have to run interference?" she was suddenly wildly alert and awake, a swath of annoyance graying on her skin as her weight pressed onto one elbow.

"You're bein' paranoid, Ally." He sighed out in explanation, his face slackening as he studied the way the sheet cut dark against her perfectly pale skin, "And I'm just trying to be adorable."

She snorted out a noise and leaned onto her back once again, "I'll see you in Stockton."

"I mean it today." His voice verged serious. "Would'ya let me help you, please?"

She turned her head on the pillow that still smelled like him, inhaling slowly as she nodded at him, offering a silent smile of acceptance into the pained way he was looking at her, all leather and denim and his boots hanging from his fingers.

"Okay." She agreed in hushed acquiescence. "If I get called out there, I'll call you."

"Thank you." The words cut off him roughly as he tugged on one of his boots. "You should get some more sleep."

"I plan to." She let her eyes slide closed as she stretched out fully along the mattress, hearing him move closer to the bed as she smiled into an arch of sore muscles.

"I'll see ya soon, yeah?" his lips were brushing hers softly as his leather clad palm curved over her forehead and slid into her hair.

"Mmm. Ride safely." She just turned the smile into the way he kissed against her again, eyes still closed until he stood, watching the line of him from behind as he left.

* * *

><p>He'd been distracted by the sirens – not that they were all that rare on Main Street these days. The station wasn't all that far from Scoops, really. But lately it had seemed as though every time he was at the ice cream shop, at least one cruiser had blown past the wide windows, lighting and ringing them up in a bright echo that had vibrated past the glass and into his lungs. The very fact that he was noticing was driving him maddened. He normally wouldn't give two bear shits in the woods. And now he was leaning away from the way Teller was speaking, unconsciously angling a glance out the windows toward where the lights were still flashing from up the block.<p>

"Still with me, Chibs?" there was an amused smirk quirking the younger man's face, one of his brows lifted as he slung his arm back against the booth and stretched. "Or did you wanna go ambulance chase?"

"I'm with ya." He muttered back, catching the smirk Tig passed from beside him. "To hell with ya both."

"She out there?" Jax thumbed backwards toward the window with a widening grin, his question aimed toward Trager.

Tig lifted himself half up from the booth, craning a glance out the window. "Can't tell."

"Sit your ass down, Tigger." Chibs jerked against the other man's leather, yanking him back down into the booth. "Where were we?"

"We were discussing how long it's been since you lightened the fuck up and called your girlfriend for something other than information." Trager teased blithely over his coffee cup, lifting it as Jax smiled over the both of them amusedly.

"Hey." Chibs sharply lifted a flat palm into the middle of the booth. "She's not my girlfriend. She's too smart to have me."

"Bullshit." Jax leaned his head back, his shoulders far more relaxed than they had been lately, a surprising wash of affection on his face. "She's got you swingin' on a hook, brother."

Chibs blinked his glance back to the window, frustrated that he could still see the bouncing reflection of the lights, but not a fraction of the cruiser. He rubbed his palm along his beard, knowing that both the other men were watching him in a humored silence that was slowly turning questioning. He blinked silence back to his President, knowing his face had slackened in honest concern. Jax was watching quietly and waiting him out, his expression unreadable.

"She does, doesn't she?" Tig asked quietly, intentionally grading his voice a shade lower as he kept the coffee cup lingering near his lips. "Jesus, Chibs."

"She's not just… It's not just about the money. It's not." He ignored the arched way Tig glanced between the two of them, instead holding the younger man's light eyes in honesty. "She's saved my ass, our asses, more than once. No transactions involved."

"I told you to go there if you wanted to." Jax gave him a slow shrug, his voice tailored low and long. "How deep you wade into that is on you."

"I haven't asked you for much of anything, Jackie. I just want consideration." He kept his voice low and slow and gauged each word on his tongue before it was released. "Clay worked with Unser and both sides prospered."

"I'm not Clay." Jax shook his head, eyes thinning blue to gray as he leaned his elbow forward onto the table. "And she is definitely not Unser. Dick was never a part of that equation."

"I know." Chibs leaned hard into the booth, head angled sharply, "But regardless of how that plays out, this could be an alliance we need right now, Jax."

"You're standing up on this?" Tig asked tightly as he set the cup down. "You're sure? She's a cop."

"She could have hauled my ass in a half a dozen times by now. And yours. Especially yours." He forced himself to lay the words gently over the table as he spoke to Trager and then angled back to the younger man, catching Jax's eyes and holding the interested glance full on, "Trust me, she's pushy. But we've a balance. She wants more but she backs off when I need her to… We…"

"Have a balance." Jax repeated in a soft reflection of warmth, a near sadness that caught Chibs unaware.

"You scratch her back in the shower - "

"You can shut your fuckin' mouth, Tiggy. If y'wanna debate where we put our dicks at this table I'll call Ms Venus to moderate." He shunted to the side, catching the tweak of a taunting smile that was still on the other man's lips before he turned back to Teller, "This is a personal request, Jackson."

Jax lifted an open palm, a slow acquiescence as he nodded, "I got no beef with Jarry. She's been good on her word. And you're right, she's been an asset. But if she becomes a problem, she's your problem. And you'll handle it."

Chibs unconsciously winced into the phrasing, his body shunting back into the framework of the bench seat as he slowly nodded. "Understood."

"You're willing to take that on?" Jax asked him softly. "To put yourself in that position?"

He only held his breath a fraction before nodding, "Aye."

Jax gave him a slowly growing smile, his eyes a brighter shade of blue, "Then you should probably lighten the fuck up and call your girlfriend for something other than information."

* * *

><p>"Get him in the back." She sharpened toward one of the younger deputies as he shunted a handcuffed and tweaking junkie across the parking lot, her hand catching and rubbing into the back of her neck, "And make sure you Mirandize him in front of another officer. His lawyer likes loopholes."<p>

"I got it, Lieutenant." Larramie answered quickly, nodding behind her as he steered the man toward the cruiser. "You've got an audience."

She stopped her steps and followed his glance, catching how inviting a pair of long and denim clad legs stretched from the back of an equally pretty Harley. Her shoulders sloped down reflexively as she carried her glance up from worn in boots to the way he'd crossed his arms over his chest, a cigarette pieced between gloved fingers as he blew smoke to the side. His jaw went up when she met his eyes and the slow blink of dark eyes preceded the way he nodded her closer.

"Take him in, Jake." She nodded back to the other officer. "I'll get a way back."

"I can wait." There was a tweak of concern lighting his eyes. "You sure, Lieutenant?"

"I can handle this one on my own." She waved back at him as she turned her steps down the street. "Trust me."


	5. Chapter 5

"What's this?" he shied the side of his hand along his own scruffed jaw but nodded toward her, his eyes roving her face before the leather of his glove clipped up under her chin, drawing her head up in the flared sunshine. "Get a little hands on, Lieutenant?"

She winced away from the press of his gloved thumb against the welting and was riding her jaw, knowing the only fist the little prick had landed on her was going to bruise up by morning. "It's fine, Scotty. You need something?"

"What else did he do to you?" he was still lifting against her jaw, the lax spread of his body suddenly rising taller than her and wired into tightness as he let his eyes slope down.

"Filip." Her hand curled along his wrist, a warning tempering the mingled color of her eyes as she scrutinized him with a whispered tone of near reproach. "I'm a big girl. He's cuffed in the car, isn't he?"

A sudden grin dug dimples into his scars as he nodded, brow arched in acceptance before he loosened his fingers from her chin, touching a wisp of hair that had drawn down against her jaw before separating them with a sudden space. He pulled his sunglasses from the pocket of his cut and tugged them on, breathing in slowly through his nose as his arms curled defensively on his chest again.

"Did you need something?" she intentionally kept her voice clear, uninflected and dry of any sort of emotion.

"What makes you think I need somethin'?" he let his body rest back onto the bike and she pretended not to notice the cocked angle of his knee as one boot clipped up higher than the other.

"You haven't contacted me in three days unless it was about the club." She flattened the words out quickly. "Deductive reasoning."

"You're countin' days, love?" he suddenly cut an amused glance back toward her, tipping his jaw down so that he could look over the rims of the glasses at her, a grin taking over his entire face. "That's adorable."

Her brow cocked hard and she snorted before turning, a hand up behind her in annoyed dismissal as his laughter tripped up. She started a quick step forward and felt his thrust of movement from the bike, heard the shift of leather and the break of his boots and she caught against his wrist hard as he grazed her hip, turning so that she was thrusting his palm back up into his chest. The amused surprise that registered on his face was a high stride victory and she pushed it just a bit farther, intentionally stepping up into his space and driving him to lean back. Something about the way the sun warmed the leather on him had her lungs aching.

"You really wanna put your hands on me on this street, Telford?" she husked her voice intentionally lower, the other hand lifting to draw his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose. "Because half your crew is standing two feet inside that window and I count at least four Niners halfway up the block."

"That was the bloody point, Althea." He hissed the words back over her, eyes thinning into dark points of certainty. "Work with me here."

"Work with you?" her voice shattered hard into frustration as her radio crackled and ran on into a call that she ignored. "Or for you?"

"Don't gimme that bullshit." His tone was gritting harder than hers, his body suddenly pressing back in a battle for physical control. "You get a fair shake in this deal."

"Which deal?" she asked softly, intentionally scaling back the emotion she'd loosed, forcing her lungs to fill slowly. "The one I made with Teller or the one you offered me the other night?"

"Both still stand." He told her gently, angling his wrist down in a way that forced her to let go, the shift of his wrist shunting her thumb back in a jolt of pain that he soothed as his gloved hand overtook hers in less than a breath. "Who else is on this street, Lieutenant Sheriff? Is that what you're really concerned with?"

"You think it'd be easy for me to explain to my bosses why there's a high profile criminal in my bed?" she taunted at him, proudly unable to back down from the way he was pushing at her. "And if they find out that his boss is paying me off?"

"You think it's easy for me to offer up a weakness to the long list of men who want my kind in the ground?" he questioned back, looking down over her hand as he curled his fingers around her palm.

"Jesus," she blew out a breath and tugged his glasses from his nose with her free hand, sliding them up into his hair as she shook her head slowly, "I can't take you seriously like that."

The smile he tinted over her was slowly made with a sort of affection that she wasn't sure he let show all that often. "Need a ride back then?"

"Oh, that's tempting." She exhaled with honest interest as she angled her head to the side, studying the bike with a warming sound up her throat.

"I knew you liked her." He teased brightly, nodding toward the motorcycle.

"I do." She cut a glance back to him, drawing her hand down from the way he'd been loosely holding onto her, both hands breaking to her sides and riding relaxed against her gunbelt. "Raincheck?"

He just nodded and slowly angled a step back, hands lifted slightly as a mark of peace between them as he exhaled. "Of course."

"Filip." She felt heat in her lungs, speed in her voice as she tried to stall his retreat for a reason she wasn't certain of… she just didn't want to let go.

The look he gave her was both gentle and questioning.

"Thank you." She shrugged into it, trying to even the weight of the words.

He just smiled as he stepped backwards onto the curb. "Busy tonight?"

"Just paperwork." Ally shrugged as her radio went off again, "shouldn't take me too long."

He was aiming his steps backwards toward the ice cream shop entrance, flicking the glasses back down over his eyes, "Maybe I'll just watch ya work."

* * *

><p>"All good?" Jax's nod went toward the windows but his eyes stayed tight and focused on the way Chibs blew out a breath, shoving his glasses hard into his hair as the bell jangled happily at the door.<p>

"Yeh, Jesus." The older man snorted as he shook his head into a slightly flustered amusement, noting that the rest of the guys had backed off and were scattered away from the window. "She's full feisty this mornin'."

"Thought she was gonna half Nelson ya there for a second." The younger man snorted as he tugged a half crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

Chibs just gave the other man a quick and bright smirk, "She's a bit handsy."

"I really don't need to know." Jax lifted his hands as he shook his head into laughter, tucking an unlit cigarette into the corner of his lips. "Barosky's making noise. You in?"

"Aye." Chibs nodded quickly, thumbing back toward the door. "Let's go."


End file.
